July 2010

Dear Member,

Not much going on under the bird feeder these days. No more snakes but lots of birds now. The bluejay population seems to have doubled or tripled, and the black bird contingent has expanded as we watch the older birds still feeding the young ones, who now are as big or bigger than their parents. Tabatha, the resident turkey, stops by now and then but has seemingly taken on a more independent streak as she has been seen roaming the park blocks away by our friend Ray the printer.

The Feds have come up with a new definition of “moderate alcohol consumption” when talking about health benefits of wine. Currently, moderate consumption is defined as one glass per day for women and two glasses for men. Under the proposed new U.S. Dietary Guidelines as recommended by the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, moderate consumption will now be considered to be an “average of” one glass per day for women and two glasses for men, with no more than three drinks daily for women or four for men. It’s a subtle change but it takes in account the reality that most Americans don’t drink every day. If adopted the new guidelines will allow you and your spouse to maintain that you practice “moderate alcohol consumption” even though the two of you together down a whole bottle of wine...as long as you limit your consumption to every other night!

Under the guidelines, the standard ‘glass’ of wine is 5 ounces; a bottle of wine is a little more than 25 ounces, which comes to approximately 5 glasses. If you and your spouse adhere to moderate consumption guidelines you would be drinking a bottle of wine every other night, two glasses for ‘she’ and three for ‘he’. This computes to over a case every month necessary for you to gain the numerous health benefits ascribed to moderate consumption. To ensure an adequate supply of available wine, we suggest that you increase your monthly wine shipments to four, six or twelve bottles. Just let us know and we’ll make the change today...and as a bonus, we’ll keep your delivery charge at the two bottle level!

Just a quick note about our staffing at Wine Concepts. Bridgette, who had worked in the office for the last five years or so, decided to leave Florida and now is in South Carolina. If you call the office and a guy answers the phone, it’s probably not me but Addison who replaced Bridgette. We sound alike it seems. If a girl answers, it’s got to be Judy, my wife. Otherwise, it’s me. Got it?

And now a followup on a couple of items from Member Letters of the last few months:

·        Joining former PGA greats like Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, LPGA legend Annika Sorenstam has just released a Shiraz under her eponymous label.

·        The state of Pennsylvania has finally installed the first two wine vending machines in grocery stores. These hi-tech gizmos help you in selecting from a menu of 53 wines, scan a state issued ID card for proof of age and then subject you to a Breathalyzer test to ensure your blood alcohol is below the .02 level. A rollout of an additional 100 units is planned if tests turn out

okay. This is the only way you can buy wine in Pennsylvania without visiting a state store

According to a study conducted by the Wine Marketing Council, 53 percent of wine drinkers in the United States are women. And last year, women matched men as “core drinkers”, those who drink wine at least once a week. These results didn’t surprise us...more than half of our Wine Concepts members are women. It’s been that way for quite a while too. At a meeting of the International Wine Club Association a number of years back, one of the suggested agenda items for the next meeting was how to encourage wine club membership by women. It seems as if in Europe, South America and Australia, membership was normally running 70-80% men, while our membership was around 50-50.

As always, we’d like to thank you for your support of Wine Concepts. We particularly want to welcome aboard the new members who have joined us in the last month or two....we hope your stay is long and full of pleasure. We look forward to your calls and e-mails...it’s only through such feedback that we can become the wine club you deserve, the best wine club in the world. To offer a suggestion or complaint; to order some wine or recommend a friend; to increase your shipment or join a new program; to just say hello...please call us at 800-749-9463, reach us by e-mail at wineconceptsinc@comcast.net, or send a fax to 239-591-2840.

All the best,